LATE 18TH CENTURY, IN THE MANNER OF GIUSEPPE VALADIER

These urns, with their delicately chased mounts in the antique manner and sparing use of small scale classical ornament, particularly the lion's masks linked by floral swags, relate to the work of the celebrated Roman silversmiths and bronziers Luigi and Giuseppe Valadier. A centrotavola by their workshop, with similar lion's masks and swags, is illustrated in A. Gonzales-Palacios, Il Gusto dei Principi, Milan, 1993, vol. II, p. 207, fig. 394, while the silver service supplied by the Valadier workshop to Monsignor Antonio Odescalchi c. 1795 , displays similar motifs ( see Artemis Group , Valadier,15 May-12 June 1991, exhibition catalogue, pp. 138-141, figs. 74a-b).
Luigi Valadier (1726-1785) was the most celebrated Roman metalworker of his period, numbering among his clients the Borghese, Chigi and Braschi-Onesti families, for whom he supplied finely crafted objects in a number of different fields including bronzes, furniture and pietre duri. His son Giuseppe (1762-1839) concentrated more on architectural commissions, but also supplied furniture to Pope Pius VI, Duke Luigi Braschi Onesti and Prince Camillo Borghese.